One of The Best Things About ‘End of The F***ing World’ is Its Soundtrack

If you’ve started on Netflix’s End of The F***ing World, which dropped earlier this month, you likely understand why everyone’s been talking about it. Despite the initial impression that it’s another navel-gazing, quirky hipster romance, the eight-episode seriesis actually quite the charmer.

Based on the award-winning comic book series of the same name by Charles Forsman, End of The F***ing World tells the story of James, a meek and disturbed young man; and Alyssa, a foul-mouthed and free-spirited young woman. Following in the mold of classic manic pixie dream girl dynamics, James and Alyssa are reluctantly drawn together, then embark on an angsty road trip of hijinks and self-discovery.

The show has a lot of great aesthetic choices going for it: dark humor, a lean, stream-of-consciousness narration, appropriately bland delivery, and distinct costume design. But its secret sauce, as it were, might just be its soundtrack. To fit the dark and eccentric coming-of-age narrative that sees two young people rushing into adulthood, the music is almost completely anachronistic—ballads and rock classics from the youth cultures of bygone decades set the tone. Spotify user darcie2000 put them all into a playlist:

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The soundtrack, like the show itself, is a mix of different genres from the sixties, seventies, and eighties; moving back and forth between slow, smooth, upbeat, and even funky. But throughout, the retro feeling is consistent, as is the youthful attitude that characterizes James and Alyssa’s journey together. Queue this up for a nice, long Saturday morning drive.